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by IMEMC & Agencies

Saturday morning [October 19, 2013] A number of extremist Israeli settlers invaded Palestinian olive orchards in Qaryout village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and uprooted more than 100 olive trees.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of Israeli Settlement file in the northern part of the West Bank, has reported that settlers from Aliyah settlement, near the village, attacked the orchards and fled the scene.

The orchards belong to several residents some of them identified as Mohammad Ibrahim Moammar, Qassem Abdullah Azzam, Mohammad Jaber Abdullah, Amin Mahmoud Hasan, Mosleh Ahmad Badawy, Sha’er Ahmad Ibrahim, Ahmad Baker, and Ahmad Abdul-Hamid Azem.

Nablus Governor, Jibreen Al-Bakry, denounced the attacks, and called on the residents to continue to pick their olive trees despite the escalating attacks carried out by extremist settler groups.

He said that the settlers want to rob the residents of their orchards and of their livelihood, but the Palestinians are determined to remain steadfast in their lands.

Al-Bakry called on international human rights groups to intervene and pressure Israel into acting against the ongoing and escalating attacks, carried out against the Palestinians and their lands.

Attacks carried out by extremist Israeli settlers witness a serious escalation every year during the olive harvest season. In many cases the settlers harvested Palestinian orchards and stole the produce, and in many other cases their burnt the orchards and lands, or cut and uprooted the trees, in addition to flooding farmlands with sewage.

The attacks also include physical assaults against the villagers in their own orchards.

On Friday, extremist settlers illegally occupied 20 Dunams (4.94 Acres) of Palestinian lands that belong to residents of Aseera Al-Qebliyya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and fenced the lands preventing the owners from entering them.

The settlers leveled sections of the illegally seized Palestinian property, and installed a number of electric poles.

Last Saturday, October 12, extremist settlers attacked and injured two Palestinian children in Susiya village, east of Yatta town, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Jihad Nawaj’a, head of Susiya Village Council, stated that approximately 13 Israeli settlers threw bottles and stones at dozens of villages, and assaulted several women and children.

The settlers also attacked shepherds and their flocks in the village, and chased them out of their lands.

Medial sources said that a woman identified as Sameeha Nawaj’a, 40 years of age, and Nasser Mohammad Nawaj’a, 33, suffered various cuts and bruises. Eyewitnesses said that the settlers also killed a sheep.